- Ideally, the way you run your first hour to the highest degree, is essential for personal management.
- It can increase your performance. You should make it a usual ritual or routine to rise up early so that you achieve more before noon.
Own your morning, elevate your life: is the main message in the heroic book titled The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma. It is one of those iconic books I recommend you read ravenously. That is, in case you yearn to be both active and productive during morning hours.
You cannot read that tantalising treatise and still struggle with waking up early. It will equip you with weapons for overcoming the battle of the bed. You will win the war of sleeping for long with no apparent reason.
Ideally, the way you run your first hour to the highest degree, is essential for personal management. It can increase your performance. You should make it a usual ritual or routine to rise up early so that you achieve more before noon.
Great achievers of the world wake up before the sun because it is the special part of the day. On the other hand, lackadaisical ones compete with the dead in sleeping. Yet, Proverbs 10:16 warns us, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands and poverty will attack you like an armed man; scarcity will assail you like a bandit.”
More importantly, successful people wake up early. Why? So that they envision their ideal performance for the day ahead. Their morning routine aids them build great empires. Meaning, empire-makers and history-creators wake up early: to prepare themselves for the thrills and hills ahead.
Most of the people who left indelible footprints on the sands of time used to wake up early. A classic case is Beethoven. He used to wake up at dawn to compose classic music. No wonder I contend that the quality of our morning practice has a great impact on our daily performance. We win wars in the early light of intense training. Warriors win wars before they walk into battlefields. Triumphs belong to those who take time to prepare properly.
Actually, your productivity, prosperity, as well as the quality of your private life – will not rise because you wake up at 5 am. Instead, it is what you do over the 60 minutes after you wake up that makes the 5 AM Club a game changer.
The first hour after waking up from deep sleep is 'The Victory Hour'. This one hour can be of great help to you if you employ the 20-20-20 formula. This entails dividing the 60 minutes into three parts, each taking 20 minutes.
The first 20 minutes — Move. The second 20 minutes — Reflect. The third 20 minutes — Grow. It is a perfect pattern: Move-Reflect-Grow. You can change and alter the pattern to fit your desired outcome.
In move, you create prime time for intense exercise. Engage in an activity that will make you sweat profusely. Breathe deeply to boost your body's metabolism. This will help you remain alert and vigilant. It will raise your energy levels. It will also help you manage worry, anxiety, tension and stress. It is one of the secrets to longevity. It will revolutionise the quality of your days.
In the reflection time: Meditate, contemplate, pray, plan and make entries into your journal. This will help you develop an attitude of gratitude. It will raise your skill of self-awareness. It will replenish your pot of wit. Your serenity will soar high. You will also entice happiness and bliss. You will attract greater positivity.
Then, the last part will help you grow and glow. Review your goals, read a heroic book, listen to a phenomenal speech or sermon. Watch an educational video. Study. In turn, your courage, language and knowledge will deepen. Your acumen will escalate.
Your confidence will accelerate. You will hone useful skills in the management of change. Your income will also become handsome. There will be domain dominance. As well as personal growth. It is the best way to stay inspired.
Johann Gottfried Von Herder sagely said, “Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.”
Using the front end of your day expertly is such a key determinant of business eminence and personal significance. You must crave a moment of deep peace, grace and solitude before the complexity starts arriving. Contemplate how you are living.
Consequently, be thoughtful and intentional about the values you want to be loyal to over the hours ahead of you. Think about how you will behave. Consider what needs to happen for you to have a great day ahead. Construct a legendary life. Reflect on what is most important. Yes, what can constitute a life well lived.
Think quietly about the weighty value of purely producing work that represents mastery. Remember your commitment to treating people with great respect. Reflection is a source of transformation. Why? Because once you know better, you will become brighter and smarter.
Most famous geniuses had a habit of sitting in solitude for hours with nothing more than a pad of paper and a pen. Therein, they captured insights that would start flashing across the screens of their imaginations. They valued imagination.
No wonder, Albert Einstein put it aptly, “Knowledge will take you from point A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere.” Developing an impressive imagination is a highly important portal into a celebrated fortune. Therefore, use the reflection pocket to invent, visualise and dream.
Finally, focus on the quality not quantity of sleep. Deep sleep enhances creativity, vitality, productivity and longevity. One of the primary ways to invite early death is to fail to have enough hours of quality sleep.
Research has proved that it is not only sleep deprivation that kills, but also over-sleep. Sleeping nine or more hours also can shorten life. When you do not have enough hours of deep sleep, you will not be able to wake up early.
Ravenous reader and peripatetic speaker. [email protected].